Texas Rangers Blog

Yu Darvish merchandise finally available

And you thought it was difficult to sign Yu Darvish. Consider the process the Rangers and Darvish had to go through to make Rangers jerseys with his name on the back available to the public before the season.

When Darvish signed with the Rangers last month, it was initially thought that merchandise with his name and the Rangers logo on it couldn’t be sold until he became a member of the MLB Players Association, which won’t happen until his first full day of service in the majors (April 6).

Ultimately, Darvish had to give his consent to merchandiser Majestic to use his name on jerseys, even if he won’t get full credit toward receiving money from the players’ share of licensed properties until opening day.

Rangers team store employees received a shipment late last week of about 2,000 Rangers T-shirts ($28), replica jerseys ($125) and authentic jerseys ($298) bearing Darvish’s name and No. 11 on the back. The merchandise is also being sold on Majestic’s Japanese-language website.